Annals of a Nameless Soldier
by Kyrieath
Summary: Discontinued; see profile for details.
1. The First Entry

Author: Cyhirae

Notes: It's been ages since I wrote anything for SoA..my last piece being "The Nameless Soldiers". In the reviews about it- someone suggested I do a story from one of their PoVs. So..here you are. For the record- this character will never be named and this "story" will follow the game for now- just showing it from eyes of someone not involved with Vyse and Co. It is done in journal style as these are meant to show the soldier's side, not be an action/adventure story (though I may insert actual story segments if inspiration hits accordingly).

If well recieved- I may expand it out into it's own little sidestory (in which I'll reveal his name), otherwise it's going to be three or four installments long only. This first one is just to introduce you to how he thinks and takes place just ahead of/during the game start. And yes. Spoilers, spoilers and more spoilers- nor is SoA, Valua and all affiliated characters mine. Just this 'nameless' boyo is.

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The First Entry

You could say one thing about life on a valuan ship: It was interesting. Dangerous, filled with backstabbing opportunists, and always under awareness of how tempting a mark you were to pirates...but I could never, in all my days, call it boring. A pity we don't get hazard pay- I'd be richer than the richest noble in all of Valua and have my family eating soft, sweet cake with jam off of gold gilt plates made of marble!

Valua will never allow such a thing, though...that would simply destroy it to admit that one of us poor, near-beasts in the lower city could aspire to the same heights as the nobles. So long as I'm a part of it- well I can improve our lot..perhaps raise my family up enough some overbearing, fat and lazy noble will hire them on as servants. You tend to keep your servants well fed after all- well fed, nicely clothed..so they aren't an embarrassment. Nor are they sent back to lower Valua at the end of the day, oh no! They'd bring the reek of the lower city back with them come the next day.

It might seem sad to you that I think longingly of sending my wife and children off to pander to some worthless noble's needs- but it's really the best future for them as things are- and if I get a good record here, on this ship, I can ask for a transfer into such a household as a guard. No more risky missions out here with pirates hiding behind every cloud...And I'd see them every day.

Good food, a strong roof overhead, and a safe place to raise my son and daughter. What more could anyone- Valuan or otherwise- possibly want? Unfortunately, that wasn't what I had nor what I was likely to ever get. If the Black Pirates weren't bad enough- those damned Blue Rogues had to go and add to the trouble. And even _worse_? They acted like they were doing a good thing!

What's so good about snatching food out of my family's mouth and putting it in someone else's? I'd rather deal with Black Pirates any day- they at least admitted what they were: Thieves and worthless bandits, stealing whatever they could get their hands on. The Blue Rogues called themselves heroes, though...the ones who 'dared to stand' against Valua and raid our ships.

Like it's hurting Valua to lose a few shipments here and there- it _is_ hurting us though. Do they think we get off scott free if they take what they want and let the ship go? Hah! I'd sincerely like to know what kind of loqua they've been drinking- it must be pressed near the Dark Rift the way it's addled their brains. If you can't adequately defend a ship, and have the poor taste to return alive- well. Then you were alive to work off the debt you earned losing your cargo and equipment. Your family could just wait until you had paid back what you lost to the empress. Once that was done- well, back to normal for you, don't mess up again.

Those oh so heroic Blue Rogues were one of two leading causes why me and my fellows will never see a good roof over our heads, decent food on our tables. The thought behind what they're doing is nice in theory, but for being such do-gooder types, they're beyond short sighted, let me tell you! Still, I suppose it really doesn't matter to them. In this armor, we're all just valuan soldiers.

They can't see our faces, they don't know our names...they have no idea what waits for us, probably, when we return with an empty ship. But even knowing that..it's hard to forgive them. I hate them even more than the black pirates for their smug "I've done a good deed!" attitude after raiding us... Maybe one day, I'll corner one and find out just what's so 'good' about condenming us to lives of debt and watching our families chew on rock-hard black bread and drink filthy, stale water.

It'll probably never happen..or they'll never believe me...but at least I can be happy knowing I got to one of them and put it to them finally.

And offhandedly...if you think desertion is an option- I really advise you to think again, whoever you are that reads this. If it were that easy to get away from Valua- don't you think we all would? If I run off- I'm leaving behind my friends and family..and I'll be a hunted man. And where would I go even if I didn't care about those I'd be leaving? Nasr? Oh they'd love that! Nasr and Valua are not friends- never will be! Or perhaps you think I should go to Sailor's Island. I may as well just turn myself back into Valua the minute I escape then for all the good that would do.

Become a pirate? Hah! I try not to practice hypocrisy, thanks. Death of myself or my family as a whole will happen before any of the above happens.

Speaking of happenings...I can hear the canons firing. Our esteemed "Admiral" Alfonso must have found what he was looking for. Time to put this away- the last thing I need is for my shift commander to come in demanding me on duty for this little hunt and finding me with this. Stealing a logbook just to keep a journal will probably get me a ticket to the colliseum if caught..but I need to vent somewhere.

You understand, don't you? Anyway- off I go. Perhaps I'll have something interesting to write about afterward.

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Short, I know. ; they'll get longer as we get into the actual story.


	2. The Second Entry

Author: Cyhirae

Notes: Whee..long time since an update but that's just the way it goes sometimes... And here we have a hint of why some soldiers were willing to stick with Galcian, setting the stage for later in the game.

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_-The Second Entry-_

It's been awhile since I could get another entry in- it's been a hell of a time, let me tell you! Last entry, I'd written about those damnable supposed 'do gooder' pirates right? I pretty well vowed at that point I'd never do it again: because guess who came calling after I stopped writing? You guessed it: THEM. And just like usual- they took our cargo AND whatever it was that Alfonso had been after. Isn't that just our luck?

Still, for once...we actually had some good luck. And it had nothing to do with the rogues suddenly growing brains and realizing what they were doing to us...much as I'd love for that miracle to come to pass. Alfonso gave us a little miracle in proving just how little a brain HE had and bailing in the middle of the raid. It's a shame his second died though...He was a pretty good guy. It's not everyone who can make working under an idiot's command tolerable.

Wherever you found your rest, my friend, know you're not a nameless footnote to those who were under you. Valua may not've cared about your fate, but we did.

And amazingly- so did Galcian. I was with the party that reported the goings on when we got back to Valua. We expected more of the usual: report to the dock officer, then sit and wait for the bill to land in our laps. It never did, though. We were instead called up to HIS office- and we gave our reports to him directly about what happened. I don't really remember most of what was discussed- something about an escaped prisoner or the like...I honestly had a single word he said burn everything else out of my brain.

Promotion. If we did well in the next operation, thanks to our honesty in this report, we could get a _promotion._ And somewhere after that, a notation that Alfonso would be the one footing the bill for the lost equipment, since he ran away before the battle was even finished.

For the first time in my life, I wanted to jump up and down like a moron, crowing my head off. Instead, I saluted as crisply as the rest and marched with every ounce the staunch dignity they were showing...

When we got aboard and below decks again...THEN we crowed and danced about like a pack of morons, yelling the good news to our comrades. We didn't have to pay, and the commander of Valua's forces was offering promotion, if we did well in the next operation. They could probably hear the cheering a dozen docks away, but we didn't care.

The next morning- we got the orders for the forthcoming operation. We nearly all crowed again: Galcian had uncovered the Blue Rogue base! Finally, we were going to get to repay them for years of raids and show THEM what it was like to have someone sweep out of the blue and then leave you to pick up the pieces. And given our crew's past exposure to the escaped prisoner- Galcian wanted us to especially keep an eye out for her.

Now that I felt rather bad about; she was hardly more than a kid. But if I have to choose between sparing someone else's kid whatever Galcian's interests in her were and getting a promotion to secure a better line of pay- a better LIFE- for _my_ kids? Sorry, but my family wins out every time. Besides, the commander of Valua didn't seem nearly so bad in person- the only other person who's ever been even half way fair to us in the past that I could recall was Gregorio.

Then it came time to hit the island. And let me tell you- we were first to disembark our ship compared to everyone else- promotion was our 'war cry' and a reason for fighting beyond just another paycheck. The downside...we lost a lot of good men that day. Finding the prisoner before the others meant being on the front lines; we got the best chances...but we also had the best chances of getting killed too.

Still...we did it. And not only did we capture the lost prisoner- we also destroyed that damned ship, captured the pirates _and _recovered quite a bit of stolen goods.

And Galcian, Moons bless him, declared them already paid for by the men of the armada. He took the equipment, of course, but those who had a hand in the retrieval were granted some claim to the financial worth.

Not even Gregorio would have done something like that for us. I don't know what's made him start taking such an interest in us, but I thank the moons every day for it. Still, though we did keep a good bit of what we were rewarded...we also agreed to pool some of it and give it to the Valuan families of those who lost members in the attack. There had been a hard side to that battle that made us unwillingly to be so utterly greedy, after all.

We'd never thought the base was an actual _village._ There'd been more than just pirates there- there'd been children and the elderly, young men and women just like in any village. Still, there wasn't much help for it. They'd plainly been harboring the pirates- they treated them as heroes, even. The adults hadn't been so hard to take- they'd made a conscious decision in regards to all of that after all.

It had been the children who'd been hard- growing up all starry eyed with the idea that their raider mommies and daddies were doing good things by robbing Valua, and that Valua was bad for taking it back. Beyond bad, really, since they were taking their mommies and daddies to task for it.

I really wish I could see my children grow up with that kind of blissful ignorance and that whole innocent black and white view of the world. But they won't- and I hate to have to ruined those kids' dreams about it. It hurt, but I simply kept my visor down as they howled and screamed about us taking their parents away. I hate it when kids are involved in matters like this. We've just got another generation of supposed do-gooders there now, who're going to grow up daydreaming about getting revenge and never pay a thought as to why this even happened.

Still, done's done. And Galcian is a man of his word. For those of us who made it through the operation- we've all been promoted. The damage to our ship and the loss of so many crew though means we're going to be merged onto another ship. Apparently there's some new admiral or the like- a man with really pale hair named Ramirez. Everyone says he looks too young to be an admiral, but who am I to judge? I haven't even seen him.

And the nurse'll be coming by soon, so that's it for this entry. Glad I remembered I had this though- it sure helps pass the time in the infirmary. For any other armor wearing men who read this: Remember. Your shoulder joint is vulnerable, and women with nasty, sharp little knives can figure this out real quick.

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